Thanksgiving – “We the People…”

Fresh Manna 2009© by Pastor Tim Burt

Do you remember that in our nation — the United States of America — that we are “We the people…” That‘s what’s written in the United States Constitution. “We the people of the United States…” That’s you and me. That means we have a voice. This government was established by the people and for the people.

Our forefathers had the intellectual honesty and wisdom to know and acknowledge that it was the hand of God that helped our nation become what it was at that time and would become in the future. They had the courage to set a day aside for families across the nation to give thanksgiving to Almighty God and our Savior Jesus Christ and to celebrate His blessings upon our nation.

We are the people and not only can we continue this tradition, but we can do it with great sincerity and prayer by asking God to forgive us of all our sins, personally and as a nation. We can thank Him for what He established and ask Him to lead us and our nation back to Him. We all know too well that without His help, it could never happen.

We must first ask God to revive each of us individually knowing that we need help to return to a place that we don’t seem to have strength to get to on our own. Then we must pray for revival of our nation — a manifestation where God will work in the hearts of Christians across this nation through the power of the Holy Spirit. The result would be that believers would experience a deeper, refreshed love and intimacy with God transforming thinking and changed lifestyles — a supernatural transformation. From there, the result would be a spilling of that change to unbelievers who in turn would flood the altar of Heaven giving their lives to Jesus Christ. And finally the result would be a changed nation.

We are the people of this nation. We are the people of God. Can we show the honesty, wisdom and courage our forefathers did and make this the most meaningful Thanksgiving Day ever? Let us follow their example! How can we practically do that? More tomorrow…

The following are portions of the text of the Continental Congress November 1, 1777 national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation; as printed in the Journals of Congress.

…It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost….

Psalm 33:12 (NIV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for His inheritance.

In His love,
Pastor Tim